OpenGov Permit Contract Heads to Full Board Without Backing After Procurement Probe

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Budget and Finance Committee spent nearly five hours Wednesday interrogating how the city chose its new permitting software — and ultimately sent the $33 million contract to the full board without a recommendation, a rare signal of unresolved concern. The marathon session also moved more than $480 million in bond and certificate financing for affordable housing, park improvements, fire stations, and behavioral health facilities, and deployed the first-ever rental subsidies from the voter-approved Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund.

• $33M OpenGov permitting contract advances to full board without recommendation after BLA finds procurement bypassed competitive bidding best practices
• $423M in general obligation bonds greenlit for 1,100+ affordable housing units, fire station replacements, a behavioral health step-down facility, and park projects — with earthquake safety bonds trimmed by $77M after a pipeline setback
• First-ever Prop G rental subsidies awarded: $18.5M flows to five projects serving 145 extremely low-income units across the city
• $43M in certificates of participation approved to bridge pandemic-era cost overruns on five major parks
• Nitrous oxide retail ban delayed after health inspector union demands meet-and-confer on enforcement; workers and a survivor testify to deadly risks

The committee's most contentious item — a five-year, $33 million extension of the OpenGov contract powering the city's new Permit SF system — consumed the bulk of the meeting and exposed deep fault lines over how San Francisco procures technology.